This invention relates to a management apparatus for disassembling a cable having a plurality of individual conductors arranged in one or more layered arrays.
Electrical cable is typically provided from the manufacturer in the form of a structure having a substantially circular cross section that carries within it one or more substantially concentric circular arrays of individual electrical conductors. Each of the conductors is provided with its own insulating jacket. A metallized foil and/or insulating plastic wrapper is sheathed about the exterior of the outer array of conductors. The entire assembly is surrounded by the insulating jacket of the cable.
It is necessary in practice to disassemble The cable and to connect each of the conductors in each of the concentric arrays to coresponding electrical connection points whereby any given conductor is terminated at each end thereof in a corresponding electrical circuit. To facilitate this disassembly and interconnection it is necessary to strip from the cable the outer insulating jacket and the insulating sheath thereby to expose and to liberate from their constrained condition each of the individual conductors in each array thereof. The management problem encountered in handling the relatively large number of individual conductors and the introduction of each of them into an appropriate fixture presents a most cost inefficient aspect of cable disassembly.
Accordingly, in view of the foregoing, it is believed to be advantageous to provide a management apparatus adapted to disassemble a cable of the type having one or more layered arrays of conductors, each array containing a plurality of individual electrical conductors, and for separating the individual conductors in each array and placing them into a predetermined pattern in an appropriate fixture.